Tight Beam Volume 20 August 2025
Hello and welcome to another issue of tight beam where we give you updates on what we’ve done since the last issue, our goals for between now and next month’s issue and then some extra lore or a short story, for fun, so buckle up because we’re go for launch.
Since the previous issue, we’ve discovered that while already edited, our audio files were not properly formatted for use with Audible, to release the audiobook for Altar of Scales. Since then, we’ve been working on reformatting those files to the Audible standard, and taking the opportunity to give all of them another touch up edit before final release. We’ve currently completed 16 of the 24 chapters in Altar of Scales. We have continued edits for the manuscript of the second book, Cave in the Sky. It’s now more than halfway done with its round of manuscript edits, after which it will move on to audio recording.
Our plan for the month moving forward, is to finish off the formatting for and then publish the audiobook version of Altar of Scales, and the in progress round of manuscript editing for Cave in the Sky. After which, because support for windows 10 is ending in October, just a couple of months away, we will be migrating our systems to Linux, and finding replacement software so we can resume work. We’ll record and edit/format the audiobook for Cave in the Sky, so that we can publish, E book, paperback and audiobook formats of the sequel all at the same time. Linux has and can do everything we need it to in terms of editing, formatting, recording, it’s just a matter of getting it set up for all the different flavors of software that Nerd Smith Consolidated and I use for our writing and publishing needs.
For our bonus content in this months letter we’re going to talk about some of the sub factions that have come to the audiences attention after our previous release with the full time line of events in the Descendant saga. The ZKS and BAI, these two units are the elite, shipboard (space ship) infantry. Akin to Marines (in space)
The ZKS is an acronym in Russian that translates to (Naval Space Borne Special Forces) that serve the EF (European Federation).
The BAI is a Chinese acronym that translates to (Tactical Response Infantry) that serve the AACR (Asian Australian Collective Republic).
These two units are roughly equivalent to each other, but aren’t quite direct copies of each other due to their additional origins and organizational make up. They are not normal boots on the ground infantry, they’re a step above, think of them more like shock troopers or US army rangers. A significant step above normal infantry, but not the hyper elite, super trained special forces like Navy seals or Delta force.
Depending on the size, and significance of the naval ship, there is often anywhere from a squad to multiple platoons of these soldiers aboard naval vessels. They serve a variety of functions. Namely, defending the ship from boarding parties or when docked with a space station controlling the flow of people and materials on and off the ship. They would be launching boarding assault actions on other space ships or space stations. They have normal weapons like other infantry such as rifles, but they have specialty training with blades and hand to hand combat, as when boarding or defending against a boarding action, projectile weapons could damage the ship or station they are fighting in, making melee combat much more significant, as well as the use of armor and vacuum rated pressure suits, they have very high fitness standards. While they may spend most of their lives in zero gravity they are expected to be able to ride on shuttles, too and from planets and their heavy gravity as well as any simulated gravity on space stations or O’Neil cylinders at a moments notice, leading to their meat head stereo types, as physical fitness is important for their function and they spend lots of time working out. They also serve other less skilled tasks while aboard ship, cleaning, cooking, general labor, assisting engineers and technicians, doing space walks and inspections. Like with submarines, space aboard warships is at a premium, and all crew members must be contributors. They’re paying to get every kilogram into orbit, no one, even governments as large and powerful as the interstellar EF and AACR can allow a person or any other item headed for orbit, to be dead weight.
Another interesting thing is that while they are aboard ship, and working shoulder to shoulder with the other crewmen, much like US marines aboard US navy ships, they are a different branch with a different command structure. In theory they can be used by the government to control or take over a ship from the inside, should its naval crew not adequately perform tasks or follow directions voluntarily.
Their separate command structure requires a liaison position (This is the position of Lieutenant Commander Lydia Litvak when we first meet her in Book II Cave in the Sky.) The navy can not issue orders directly to them, for they are not part of the navy, so instead, a ship captain issues the order to this liaison officer, who then makes a request of the soldiers commanding officer, who then issues new orders to best fulfill that request (with in the scope of the government’s objectives.)
The Descendant Saga 